Copy Cat Cracker Jacks

I love trying new recipes. When I found a recipe for Copy Cat Cracker Jacks I had to give it a shot. I decided to make these while my parents were in town and I have to say the extra set of hands in the kitchen was really useful with this recipe.

Ingredients
4 Quarts Popped popcorn

1 Cup Spanish peanuts

4 Tablespoons Butter

1 Cup Brown sugar

1/2 Cup Corn syrup — light

2 Tablespoons Molasses

1/4 Teaspoon Salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 250 degrees.

1. Combine popcorn and peanuts in a metal bowl or on a cookie sheet and place in preheated oven.

2. Combine all remaining ingredients in a saucepan. Stirring over medium heat, bring the mixture to a boil.

Using a cooking thermometer, bring the mixture to the hard-ball stage (260-275 degrees). This will take about 20 to 25 minutes. Make sure you stir constantly. The mixture gets really hot really fast when it hit about 230 degrees. I had to pull it off of the burner for a few seconds and let it cool down so it would not burn.

Remove the popcorn and peanuts from the oven and, working very quickly, pour the caramel mixture in a fine stream over them.

Then place them back in the oven for 15 minutes. Mix well every five minutes, so that all of the popcorn is coated.
This is were things went really wrong for me. The popcorn ended up all over the place. The popcorn clumped together with the caramel mixture and did not move around on the cookie sheet very easily. The next time I make this I will put the popcorn in a deep pot that I could move the popcorn around in without it pouring over the top.

This was a fun but messy recipe to make. I am so glad my parents were here to help me. My Dad helped by sampling the popcorn every chance he got. My Mom helped by taking pictures and making sure that the smoke detector did not go off after the popcorn fell to the bottom of the stove. All in all the popcorn tasted just like Cracker Jacks.

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